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Her cooking is not just bad, it's inedible, and sometimes actually poisonous. Or it might have [[Screwball Serum|bizarre magical side-effects]]. Or explode. Or it comes to life and either attacks or tries to run away. [[Even the Rats Won't Touch It|Animals will stare at it and back away.]] The character—usually female—may well ''love'' to cook, but she's never actually bothered to learn, or [[Alien Lunch|she's learned from aliens]], or her taste buds are wired wrong, or she just doesn't look to see what she's grabbing when it comes time to throw in another ingredient. The results are often dangerous to the poor chap who has to eat it so as not to hurt her feelings. It seems especially forced when they [[Selective Obliviousness|avoid tasting their own food.]] Curiously, this is a very popular trope used in anime.
A '''Lethal Chef''' sometimes has [[One-Note Cook|one or two things she can cook well -- or at least edibly]] -- [[Oven Logic|but she usually prefers to experiment]]. Often she is unaware—either through the kindness of friends or determined [[Selective Obliviousness|self-imposed ignorance]]—that her food is inedible, in which case she is also [[Giftedly Bad]]. Occasionally the
Particularly lively when the cook is trying to win someone [[Through His Stomach]].
This trope is almost always used for comedy, though there are exceptions. Two dishes the
Since the early 2000s, a milder form of this trope has emerged. Typically, the Less-Than-Lethal Chef cooks food that ''looks'' absolutely disgusting—but tastes fine, or even ''wonderful''.
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A related trope, [[Cordon Bleugh Chef]], differs in that the chef in question is able to cook perfectly well but likes experimenting with food combinations that more often than not, really should ''never'' be combined. A [[One-Note Cook]], on the other hand, is lethal in all aspects except for one (usually [[Trademark Favorite Food|very specific]]) kind of food.
An [[Evil Chef]] is a
Note that in most mundane situations (that is, no crazy ingredients) this can be avoided by the character simply following a written recipe and good quality (not off the street/expired) ingredients.
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* ''[[One Piece]]''
** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cy2xSFcwokc Apis]'s inability to cook is something of a [[Running Gag]], as is everyone ''except'' Luffy finding his food inedible. Of course, Luffy [[Big Eater| will eat anything.]]
** Anything ''except'' his own cooking that is. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07GhmxnoP2I The one time he tried it] (Sanji was missing at the time), what he came up with made him sick, and he set their ship on fire. Indeed, as Brook tells him, they were ''lucky'' Sanji wasn't there, given [[Berserk Button|how Sanji feels about people who waste food.]]
** Camie too, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Erm3k39zI0&lc=z13hfhpwhrztt5qyw04cdlrbolisvhfbw5o.1525614700233922 at least when she tries to cook for guests]. [[Fridge Logic]] shows this makes perfect sense, as she's a mermaid, who lives underwater, and likely would have a hard time preparing anything requiring an oven or stove.
** Wanz from the Water 7 Arc; he fancies himself a [[Chef of Iron]], but his fighting style - ''Ramen Kenpo'' where he swallows noodles and blows them out his nose, using them as weapons and armor - makes his cooking ''very'' unhygenic. Most everyone who sees this finds it disgusting and refuse to eat his cooking.
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* ''[[Sorcerer Stabber Orphen]]'': Cleao. She even makes a soup called Stone Cold Killer Stew.
* Baldroy in ''[[Black Butler]]'' has a habit of destroying the kitchen along with the food. He seems to have gotten a little better later on though, even once managing to make a [[Cordon Bleugh Chef]] style pie, however clumsy and incompetently prepared. The other people were afraid to eat the pie though, fearing poison. It was a reasonable fear.
* Zigzagged with Romin from ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! SEVENS]]''. In the first episode where she tries to cook, she admits she's never even made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich before, and everyone expects a disaster. When she does so, however, her curry is often lethal in ways that don’t require someone eating it. She flooded Roa’s entire apartment complex trying to make Dragias Curry, and her Prima Guitarna Curry is an explosive, literally. Gakuto and Luke considered using it this way against Yugo, but aborted that idea when Gavin feared it might destroy the entire city. A mixture of both currys has been ''legally designated as a WMD''. Regardless, anyone brave enough to eat either curry has found them to be okay, and Romin seems able to cook decent food when following someone else’s recipe or a cookbook. Unfortunately, that hasn’t stopped her from trying to “perfect” her curry…
* Meliodas' cooking in ''[[The Seven Deadly Sins (anime)|The Seven Deadly Sins]]'' is so bad no-one seems able to keep it down for more than a single mouthful save for Hawk, the pig.
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* Veronica Lodge in the ''[[Archie]]'' comics. Being the [[Spoiled Brat]] [[Rich Bitch]] that she is, [[Berserk Button|don't even]] '''[[Berserk Button|suggest]]''' [[Berserk Button|that her cooking is less than superb.]]
** In one comic, Veronica was preparing what Archie called "rainbow cookies". Since they looked like ordinary cookies, Mr. Lodge asked what he meant by that. Archie responded with "[[Squick|Sometimes they make you turn blue]], [[Nausea Fuel|sometimes they make you turn red]], [[Rule of Three|sometimes they make you turn green]]..." Later in the comic, the president of a food company tried her cookies, and the result prompted Archie to say, "Purple? Never seen that color before!"
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* Olive from ''[[The Beano]]'' (she's a "School Dinner-lady", who is a Lethal Chef subtype of her own). Her "Tea" was actually a highly-reactive acid-like corrosive; her oxtail soup moos and flicks its tail; the skin on her custard couldn't be broken with a pickaxe, and so on.
* Bruce Wayne. That's right, children, there's one skill [[Batman]] ''[[Memetic Badass|entirely failed to master.]]'' It goes from ruining the kitchen as he attempts to prepare chicken soup to, well...
{{quote|'''[[Kid Sidekick|Tim]]:''' It's okay, it's tuna sandwich. [[Tempting Fate|How could anyone fail that?]]... ''(one bite later)'' ...
{{quote|'''Allen:''' What are you doing?
'''Batman:''' Grilling.
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'''Allen:''' Grilling a steak to relax? But a prime piece of meat has to be just right, not under--or God forbid--overdone. It is, and there's no sauce known to mankind--or the French--that can hide the fact the chef's to blame. That makes a steak the most stressful thing to cook, you know?
'''Batman:''' I know. }}
* Moira MacTaggert and her coffee. If there was a complaint desk in [[Excalibur (Comic Book)|Excalibur's]] Muir Island base, probably this would be on the top. To the extent that when Kitty volunteered to take Pete Wisdom to London to check on a friend of his, Brian told him "Buy some coffee while you're there! We've run out of Rory's good stuff." And it didn't even escape Xavier's notice. He once quipped that Jubilee was using Moira's coffee to lubricate her roller skates, and also remarked on it during a video-phone call with Moira:
{{quote|'''Moira:''' Och, it's noon and I'm still barely up. It's the break o' dawn wi' you and ye look fresh as a daisy. Ye make me sick, Charles Xavier.
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** As part of their feud, the Sergeant once added motor oil to his soup. The soldiers didn't notice the difference until a motorist asked back his motor oil can.
* Monica from Brazilian comic ''[[Monica's Gang]]'' is prone to cooking awful things such as gumbo flan, yogurt pizza, or a "[http://www.monica.com.br/ingles/comics/dino/images/p09-03.gif health juice]{{Dead link}}".<ref>in case you're wondering, the characters become dinosaurs because of a serum that fell on the juice, not the juice itself</ref>
* In the comic book version of ''[[W.I.T.C.H.
** Also, Orube, an alien friend who, when first arrived on Earth, mistook money for food (she complained it didn't taste well) and has apparently set on fire the kitchen the first time she tried to cook. Differently from Will, it's more about lack of familiarity with Earth cooking implements and ingredients (in a later special it's confirmed she never set the kitchen on fire again) and clumsiness when trying to cook for other people (she destroyed the water tap in her kitchen while preparing pasta due being in a hurry), even if she still has a long way to go (in that special she managed to [[Epic Fail|''burn the pasta'']].
* There was a short arc in ''[[Spider-Man]]'' comics where Aunt May was dating Willie Lumpkin; Peter was seriously turned off by his lasagna. In one story, he took them and Mary Jane to a special art exhibit after eating it, and spent most of the time trying to find a place where he could throw up. In the second part of the story the next issue, he implies that he's taking Kristy (Mary Jane's cousin) to the museum simply to avoid having to eat it again.
== [[Fan Works]] ==
* [http://archiveofourown.org/works/244127/chapters/377214 This] [[Homestuck|''Homestuck'']] fanfic describes Dave as one, to the point where his [[Inventory Management Puzzle|sylladex]] refuses to acknowledge his creation as "spaghetti", or "pasta", or even "food". It takes him and John only a few bites to decide it was right.
* In the [[Mega Crossover]] [[Fanfic|fan]][[Web Comic|comic]] ''[[Roommates 2007|Roommates]]'' [[Les Misérables|Javert's]] mother. Her pies rival [[Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (film)|Mrs. Lovett's]]. Worst pies in London? Worst. Pies. In. FRANCE!
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** His sister Chiyo also cooks notoriously badly, but while her food might taste so bad it almost kills you, it's so healthy you feel like a million bucks afterwards.
* Vili in ''[[The Tainted Grimoire]]'' put poison in the meal she cooked for Luso, Crow, Hurdy, Kanin and Adelle when she mistakenly thought it was just seasoning.
* As seen in the page quote (and mentioned in the Anime and Manga section), the fanfic version of Akane Tendo from ''[[Ranma ½]]'' makes the canon version look like [[Supreme Chef|Kasumi Tendo]]. Various fanfics have had her food summon Elder Gods (seen in the page quote), burn holes in steel-reinforced concrete, explode, implode, and cause spontaneous mutation. One omake in Innortal's ''Infinite Loops'' fanfic had Ranma be infected by a [[Alien|Xenomorph]]... and then completely no-sell it because "Once you've lived through Akane's Chicken Surprise, the little kick from a chestburster is nothing."
==
* In ''[[Ratatouille]]'', Linguini, before meeting Remy, makes a soup so bad that when he tastes it he pukes and Remy nearly does too when he sniffs it.
** It should be noted that Remy is a rat and rats lack gag reflexes. Linguini's cooking must be ''that'' bad!
* ''[[Titan A.E.
* In ''[[The Last Unicorn]]'' Cully's gang laments about Molly's cooking.
{{quote|"Rat soup!"
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"At least you could have used a different rat!" }}
* In ''[[Despicable Me|Despicable Me 3]]'', the girls make soup for Gru made from gummi bears and beef. (Justified, of course, as they're about ten years old.) The look on Gru's face confirms he's only eating it to make them happy.
* With a trope named "Lethal Chef", I just assumed the trope name was based on Roger Murtaugh's wife from the ''[[Lethal Weapon]]'' series, as evidenced by the following exchange:
{{quote|'''Murtaugh''': What the hell, thin's my middle name.
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'''Murtaugh''': Remarks like that will not get you invited to Christmas dinner.
'''Riggs''': My luck's changing for the better every day. }}
*
* Lane Meyer's mother Jenny (played by Kim Darby) from the 1985 John Cusack film ''[[Better Off Dead]]''. In one scene, Jenny is shown cooking a pot full of ''something'' emitting a suspicious mist from which tentacles wave, and in another, one of her dishes actually crawls off of Lane's plate when he pokes it with a fork. Even her "ordinary" meals are somewhat ... ''skewed'', as evidenced by the "French-themed" dinner she makes for a French exchange student—consisting entirely of foods with the word "French" in their names, like French dressing and French toast.
{{quote|"It's got raisins in it... you ''like'' raisins!"}}
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* In ''[[Band Baaja Baaraat]]'', the only thing we see Shruti makes in screen is chai tea, and it is absolutely terrible. It's so terrible, it becomes one factor in the chain of events that end in her breakup with her business partner Bittoo, as her discovering the terribleness of her chai after weeks of serving it to him, and realizing that the ordinarily picky and opinionated man just drank it without complaint was a sign that he was intentionally avoiding speaking to her about other things (more specifically, the one passionate night that was the reason she began to make him chai in the first place).
== [[Literature]] ==
* In ''[[Artemis Fowl]]'' for a example, the lead attempts to make a sandwich that is described as an explosion on a plate.
** Mulch [[Big Eater|eats it anyway]], and appreciates it. That's not actually reasuring since, as a dwarf, Mulch mainly eats ''soil''.
* ''[[Discworld]]'':
** An entire ''race'' of literally Lethal Chefs is found in the series, in the form of dwarf bread. Used less as a food and more as a weapon, its main ingredient is apparently gravel. Its most useful purpose when used as rations is to make ''everything else'' look edible. Note that this is intentional on their part, and they can cook other dishes that are perfectly edible to any race (at least, [[Alien Lunch|if you don't mind rat]]).
** From ''[[Witches Abroad]]'':
{{quote|"To be frank," said Nanny Ogg, "I think the cat pissed on some of it."
The spokesdwarf looked up, his eyes aglow.
"Hot damn!" }}
** Of course, the trope is also subverted by the Vimes household; Lady Sybil is a bad cook, but Sam has spent so much time eating low-quality food on the streets of Ankh-Morpork that he actually ''enjoys'' it.
*** As long as he can pick out the lettuce. Or any of the vegetables. And the fruit, too, for that matter. His favorite foodgroup is Burnt Crunchy Bits.
** Let's not forget Archchancellor Ridcully, who swears by (or, swears ''at'') Wow-Wow sauce, a dangerous and highly unstable condiment that includes sulfur and saltpeter, and an [[Gargle Blaster|equally potent alcoholic drink]] called scumble. Wow-Wow sauce might have been a contributing factor in the explosive death of his uncle, who invented the stuff. He also had a charcoal biscuit to settle his stomach after he had a lot of Wow-Wow sauce. That didn't help much. {{spoiler|Gunpowder is made of sulfur, saltpeter, and charcoal (mixed properly).}}
*** And its also mentioned that his blood was 120 proof. So there you go
** Scumble is made from apples. Well, mostly apples
** Albert counts too, but it's not so important when you're the cook in Death's household. He firmly believes in grease, fat and black gritty bits. Inventor and sole eater of fried porridge. ''It eats spoons''.
** And we can't forget the borderline inedible sausages of
*** "Could I interest you in some yoghurt? Onna stick?"
*** ... as well as: Disembowel-Meself-Honourably Dibhala's funny-colored antique eggs, Al-Jiblah's highly suspicious cous-cous, the terrible yak-butter tea made by May-I-Never-Achieve Enlightenment Dibhlang and the unmentionable blubber of May-I-Be-Kicked-Into-My-Own-Ice-Hole Dibooki (main ingredient: exploded whale), the green beer of Swallow-Me-Own-Blowdart Dlang-Dlang and the meat pie floater in pea soup with tomato sauce (regional speciality of
** [[Bungling Inventor]] Bergholt Stutly "Bloody Stupid" Johnson took up cooking on a few points in his life. His attempt to make a pie took out a significant portion of Ankh-Morpork. The actual recipe was fine; it was just that Johnson approached it with his usual indifference to measurements, resulting in something so large that it achieved culinary instability and exploded under its own weight.
* Mrs. Samuel Whiskers from [[Beatrix Potter]]'s ''Tale of Samuel Whiskers and the Roly Poly Pudding''.
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* Fisk, in the ''[[Knight and Rogue Series]]''. Michael gives up on trying to teach him after only two days.
===
* Much like Batman, cooking is one of three skills ''[[Doc Savage]]'' never got the hang of, the other two being singing and impersonating others' voices.
== [[Live-Action TV]] ==
* The Hong Kong game show ''Beautiful Cooking'' is built completely on this trope.
** To be precise, a 10 is "Looks and tastes edible" and a -10 is "I vomited more than once". There are some girls who can't cook well for the first event or the latter while some are just completely hopeless.
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** An interesting subversion is Wilson. He's a good cook, but his meals are of the [[Foreign Queasine]] variety (eel pie and tadpole soup, anyone?).
** Tim once tried to cook fish in the dishwasher. ([[It Seemed Like a Good Idea At the Time]]) He ended up with 'liquid fish'.
*** [[Hilarious in Hindsight|It is actually possible to cook fish in the dishwasher.]] Here's [https://web.archive.org/web/20110905033935/http://www.salon.com/nov96/salmon961118.html one recipe.]
* Becky on ''[[Full House]]'' has this reputation, one episode even has a B-plot with her and Michelle learning to cook together.
* Thelma from ''[[Amen]]'' was a notoriously bad cook. In one episode following her wedding to the Reverend, she burned down their apartment while cooking chicken with the gang locked inside. Everyone panicked except for Rolly, who knew "Thelma's cooking would kill us all one day" and read the newspaper as smoke filled the room and the others made frantic calls to 911.
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* Airi from ''[[Kamen Rider Den-O]]'' can brew a mean cup of coffee, but she also makes health foods for her brother Ryotaro that are... less than pleasant. Think "sesame seed milkshake". One episode actually has the two in a spat because Ryotaro called the cops to dispose of one of Airi's stews as a bio-hazard.
** Naomi, the waitress on the [[Cool Train|DenLiner]] has the opposite problem. She can prepare tasty foods like rice and pudding, but her coffee is a powdery, whipped cream-topped disaster that is only enjoyed by the Imagin.
* [[Power Rangers]] and [[Super Sentai]] examples:
** Mako from ''[[Samurai Sentai Shinkenger]]'', complete with dubious knife-cutting style (she actually uses her Shinkenmaru to cut the poor veggies!). By episode 25, the sight of her holding an apron has traumatised the Kuroko. The viewer is led to see this as an exaggeration when everyone approves of her food by the end of Act 13; however, she soon reveals that most of the dishes she made had help from the Kuroko, while one of them she made all by herself... and it was the one ''Takeru'' was eating. When he fainted, Mako simply thought he was overreacting. Oddly enough (or not), Kotoha is the only one who approves of her cooking. Pretty much because she looks up to Mako.
** Mako's ''[[Power Rangers]]'' counterpart [[Power Rangers Samurai|Mia]] is said to be this too. What's interesting is that she shares [[Bleach|Orihime's]] concept of matching ingredients, and Kotoha's counterpart Emily has the same aversion to it as anyone else.
** Before Mako, there's Yukito from ''[[Bakuryuu Sentai Abaranger]]''. He's a horrid cook, but insists that he's THAT good and forces his teammates to eat his cooking, and if they don't, it's the cooking equivalent to [[TV Tropes]]' [[Memetic Mutation|"You have no soul"]] for them. Hell, his cooking rendered Asuka to hole up in the toilet for the whole episode.
** In ''[[Power Rangers Wild Force]]'', food prepared by Jindrax and Toxica is ''so'' bad that even Mandilok (a [[Villainous Glutton]] and [[Exteme Omnivore]] whose stated goal is to devour everything on Earth, leaving it a barren wasteland suitable only for Orgs) claims their cooking is terrible. Of course, criticising their attempts to please him is only ''one'' of many reasons why [[Hate Sink|Mandilok is a complete jerk.]]
* Maddie Magellan from ''[[Jonathan Creek]]''. Perhaps not truly lethal, but upon opening her oven and discovering the contents to be ''in flames'', she declared that it needed "Two more minutes" and closed the oven door again.
* Manny, at least according to Bernard on ''[[Black Books]]'': "You call this a tower of soup? Where are the minarets? The turrets?"
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* A [[Running Gag]] on the old ''[[Barney Miller]]'' was Nick's terrible coffee.
== [[Oral Tradition]], [[Folklore]], Myths and Legends ==
* An ancient Chinese story tells of a comatose general being saved from hunger by two beggars. The dish in itself was terrible (consisting of trampled spinach, rotten bean curd and unpotable water), but he didn't notice because he was semi-conscious, instead thinking it delicious. When he became emperor, he ordered said beggars to present said meal to his ministers. Afraid to lose face, they all gulped it down. The Emperor, realizing how horrible the dish was, still drank it all. The two beggars ended up rich.
== [[Music]] ==
* [[Spike Jones]]' "Pass the Biscuits, Mirandy" is told by a Tennessee mountaineer whose wife is one. At least when it comes to her biscuits.
* "'Twould kill a man twice, just to have a mere slice, of Misss Fogarty's Christmas Cake."
* The mess sergeant from [[Tom Lehrer]]'s ''"It Makes a Fellow Proud to Be a Soldier"'':
{{quote|''Our old mess sergeant's taste buds had been shot off in the war
''But his savory collations add to our
''To
''They're using plastics nowadays!
''It makes a fellow proud to be a soldier
* [["Weird Al" Yankovic]]'s pre-fame recording "School Cafeteria", found on the album ''[[Dr. Demento|Dr. Demento's Basement Tapes Number 7]]'', is two minutes and eight seconds of this trope:
{{quote|''The tuna fish sandwiches will make you ill,
''The enchiladas are enough to kill.
''Before you eat you better make out your will
''In the school dafeteria today!}}
== [[New Media]] ==
* ''[[I Love Bees]]'': Kamal is a male example. He microwaves a whole raw chicken, cuts it up in exactly equal slices, and in place of Worcestershire sauce and butter uses ketchup and butter-flavored popcorn oil.
* Mentioned in [http://bash.org/?3581 this] [[bash.org]] quote.
{{quote|<nowiki><</nowiki>Slant> If it reaches the complexity of boiling water, I don't have the attention span.}}
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFdQk-jLhFI&feature=g-u-u&context=G2cb9e67FUAAAAAAAAAA In this video] the chef almost poisons himself.
== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==
* The comic strip ''[[FoxTrot]]'' treats us to both an invocation and partial-lampshading, with matriarch Andrea Fox and daughter Paige. [[Cordon Bleugh Chef|Andy is actually a good cook, though she has a tendency to try and prepare "healthy" foods that are thoroughly inedible and borderline toxic (such as tofu...anything, really).]] Paige, on the other hand, has been shown to be able to cause boiling pasta to ''burst into flames''. Pasta that is ''submerged in water''.
{{quote|''(while discussing Survivor's food challenges)''
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'''Calvin's Dad:''' Your mom wasn't there, so she wouldn't know. Get the syrup out, will you? }}
* ''[[Hagar the Horrible]]'''s daughter, Honi, is such a horrible cook she even manages to mess up cooking water.
* God is depicted this way in ''[[The Far Side]]'', where He creates the world by baking it, [https://cheezburger.com/6040363520/this-world and makes] a [https://i.pinimg.com/originals/2e/67/3c/2e673cd3c7d7bdba4e9d1b18842cab0e.gif few mistakes].
== [[Puppet Shows]] ==
* Parker in ''Mr Meaty''. This has got to be the reason why the food there is always so terrible.
* The Swedish Chef of ''[[The Muppet Show]]'' is generally a unique example of this (i.e. his cuisine is lethal to him), but he occasionally plays it straight- in one instance he went into cordon bleugh territory and made an onion cake; in another, he provided a [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wtG5NI2HLc quite literal example].
* Ma Gorg in ''[[Fraggle Rock]]'', it seems. In one episode, she makes Junior a peach-and-garlic pie [[Bizarre Taste in Food|(which is just the way he likes it)]] but when he tries to eat it, it's like rubber, ''literally''. Fortunately, the pie isn't wasted; later, when the Fraggles have to sneak into the Gorg's house, they're able to do so by using it like a trampoline.
== [[Radio]] ==
* In ''[[The Navy Lark]]'' Able Seaman "Fatso" Johnson's pies prove to be rather convincing as limpet mines, and less edible.
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* Squee, from ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]''. See the cards [http://magiccards.info/tp/en/142.html Recycle] and [http://magiccards.info/ex/en/133.html Medicine Bag].
* In Entropy Inc's ''[[Star Wars]]'' campaign, the title crew stole/refurbished a cooking droid. Unfortunately, everything it made tasted like bantha burger.
==
* In ''[[Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (theatre)|Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street]]'', we first meet Mrs. Lovett while she's telling Sweeney (and us) how awful her meat pies are ("The Worst Pies in London"). Interesting how nobody seems to notice the connection between the barber moving in upstairs and how good her pies suddenly get...
* The entire plot of ''[[Nunsense]]'' is set into motion in the aftermath of Sister Julia, Child of God, having killed all but five of the Little Sisters of Hoboken with a tainted batch of vichyssoise soup.
* In ''[[Les Misérables]]'', Thenardier uses horse kidneys and cat's livers to make the food he serves.
== [[Video Games]] ==
* Edna from ''[[Bully (video game)|Bully]]''; she's the school's cafeteria lady, and her meals are disgusting. At best, she's smoking cigarettes over your typical [[Mystery Meat]] meals, and at worst, she's coughing and sneezing into rancid meat.
* ''[[Super Robot Wars]]'''s Kusuha Mizuha and her energy Drinks, best described [[Gargle Blaster|elsewhere]]. The real example occurs in the form of Leona Garstein, whose food tastes ''awful'' and has a habit of knocking people out, which is something she admits happens. In one scene, she cooks for her boyfriend, and as she cooks she pouts about how it's just going to knock him out again. However, this is apparently related to her taste in food; when given the advice to cook something she thinks would be awful, the others think it's delicious while ''she'' hates it. The first time Leona's boyfriend tried her cooking, he needed something to wash it down. Unfortunately for him, [[Gargle Blaster|Kusuha]] was the only person nearby.
** All the characters tend to pass out from Kusuha's energy drinks save Arado who for some reason is immune to this -also eat 5 servings per meal so it might just be that his stomach is like lead.
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** As [[Supreme Chef|Shinjiro]] points out (pitying the burned pots along the way), Fuuka's failure in cooking is her tendency to not prepare in advance and to try to deviate from the recipe without first understanding the basics, and then panic and further compound her mistakes as a result. For instance, when making chocolate truffles, if the recipe asks for one teaspoon of liqueur, she adds ''[[Cordon Bleugh Chef|a cup]]'' on the basis that [[Oven Logic|she wants a bigger portion to share with everyone]]. Which is a moot point, since she mistakenly used ''vinegar''...
* All three main girls of ''[[Persona 4]]'' have very questionable cooking abilities, ranging from Rise ([[Blazing Inferno Hellfire Sauce|way too spicy]]), Yukiko (who can make an omelet that, through a process that can only be described as alchemical, has no taste ''at all'') and Chie (just plain awful). When the latter two combine their powers, the result is dubbed "Mystery Food X" and manage to take out both the main male leads in one spoonful. ([[The Anime of the Game]] implies that they put thick starch, three different kinds of pepper, kimchi, and soy milk into it.)
** To give an idea, Rise's cooking goes over better than the other two's, despite her putting foie gras (i.e., fattened duck liver) in an ''omelette''. In their defense, when Naoto (an actually competent cook) joins in, they can actually make
** Nanako, in virtue of being only seven years old, is more of a one note chef, as in the only thing she can prepare that isn't instant food is sunny side up eggs. In ''[[Updated Rerelease|P4 Golden]]'', however, she decides to try and make Valentine chocolate for her cousin, and ask Chie, Yukiko and Rise for help. The resultant concoction was deemed as being as bad as Mystery Food X, if not actually ''worse''.
** Marie, one of the new social links in ''Golden'', is probably the worst of them all. Her Valentine chocolate can only be qualified as an Eldritch Abomination–although it actually tastes well and it is even addictive, the thing seems to be sentinent, it melts at will and tries to escape, and keeps moving itself even ''in the stomach'' of whoever ate it. In defense of Marie, she is a amnesiac being that has only lived in the Velvet Room and has zero experience with the human world.
** Fanon has decided that the only character in the ''entire'' Investigation Team who can cook well is the Main Character. And even he isn't completely exempt. If the player chooses certain options while cooking, he can potentially be as terrible as all of the girls -- ''combined''.
* Euphoria's cooking in ''[[Soul Nomad and The World Eaters]]'' is so bad that there is a body count associated with it. It is described as the rest of the cast as nothing short of biological warfare -- {{spoiler|Which turns into a [[Funny Aneurysm Moment]] once you've played the game through once and learned that Raksha was using her to develop a concentrated form of Scarlet Iago that was near-instantly fatal.}}
* The cooking contest in ''[[Breath of Fire|Breath of Fire 2]]''. Not only do you have to get the ingredients (cockroaches, worms and flies) yourself, in the end you are forced to [[Eat That|eat it all]]. Although I suppose this also has to do with the chef in question being a frog.
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** It's strongly implied in ''[[Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater]]'' that the Soviet chefs responsible for creating the Russian rations were absolutely terrible cooks, as the rations were very bad tasting, and doesn't even do moderate stamina recovery. Heck, even the dogs refuse to eat them if thrown to them.
* In ''[[Evolution Worlds]]'', Gre Nade can use his food as a special attack. It damages the enemies and chops their stats.
* ''[[Street Fighter]]'':
** El Fuerte from ''[[Street Fighter|Street Fighter IV]]'', {{spoiler|as is proven when he mixes chanko stew and borscht to serve to E. Honda and Zangief after the tournament, with [[Hilarity Ensues|unpleasant results.]]}}
*** ''"...and a pinch of chili pepper!"''
** Chun-Li too. As her Arcade Ladder ending in ''V'', her attempt to cook for [[The Apprentice (trope)|Li-Fen]] - even while carefully following a recipe in a cookbook - results in her burning the food, though thankfully not so bad that Li-Fen cannot salvage it.
* Aurica of ''[[Ar tonelico]]'' is the Less-Than-Lethal version, as though her cooking ''looks'' strange, it actually tastes quite good, at least according to Lyner (though BBQ Soda just sounds ''weird'')...
** ...But Luca Trulyworth of ''[[Ar tonelico II: Melody of Metafalica]]'' plays it straight with literal abominations for her cooking, including a dish that knocks out two residents of ''her own Cosmosphere'', two food-based Song Magics (one consisting of flinging food at the enemy, the other a food ''bomb''), and hell, even what she does at Skycat's place is an abomination, e.g. the horrendous "Trulyworthit Soup" which still has fish bones and seaweed sticking out of it, her "Chalonde Trois" which looks somewhat like [[Eldritch Abomination|something from the mind of Lovecraft]], to the okay "Baked Crackercake," which was ''meant'' to be a ''rollcake'' but somehow turned into a rice cracker. Jacquli is also one, but in the sense that her food is meant to be lethal... to her enemies.
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* In ''[[Star Ocean: Till the End of Time]]'', one of the inventors you can recruit is literally named The Killer Chef.
* In ''[[World of Warcraft]]'', a panicked goblin in Tanaris sends you to collect [[Twenty Bear Asses|scorpion asses]] to cure what ails his wife. It turns out that his lousy cooking was at fault.
* Papyrus and Undyne from ''[[Undertale]]''. Papyrus constantly cooks spaghetti that is consistently inedible, although {{spoiler| telling him you like it is the key to befriending him}}; meanwhile, Undyne is capable of brewing tea but little else, and her cooking methods involve punching the ingredients
{{quote|'''Sans:''' since he started cooking lessons, he's been improving a lot. i bet if he keeps it up, next year he'll even make something edible.}}
* Overlapping with [[Chef of Iron]] and [[Evil Chef]], ''[[
* Juliet in ''[[MapleStory]]''. In Zero’s questline, she asks them to take a lunch she made to Romeo. (Why can’t she bring it herself? [[Romeo and Juliet]] are [[Star-Crossed Lovers]], remember?) Unfortunately, when Zero does so, both Romeo and his mentor Yulette both collapse, apparently poisoned; Zero at first thinks Juliet did this on purpose, but when they go to tell her, she eats it herself to prove it’s okay and gets sick from it too. This is no surprise to Russelion (''her'' mentor), who quickly tells Zero that Juliet is indeed very skilled in brewing poison (this takes place in Magatia, [[Planet of Hats|a town whose “hat” is alchemy]]), but tends to do so by accident when trying to cook regular food. After getting the antidote, Zero asks her what the heck she put in it, and she says she used Balrog toenail, Zombie Mushroom pileus, and Evil Eye eyeballs, all things clearly not edible. Zero also takes this time to tell Romeo he might be better off seeing someone else, but sadly, as everyone knows, he and Juliet are far too smitten with each other to listen.
* ''[[The Legend of Zelda]]'':
** Moza from ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild|Breath of the Wild]]''. You have to admire her dedication, she wakes up at five in the morning and works until midnight on her attempts at cooking, but sadly, it seems she is just not cut out to be a chef. Link finds her by following a plume of black smoke that he assumes is a distress beacon, but it is in fact, one of her failed attempts to cook. She seems obsessed with finding a way to make edible food out of ore, machine parts, and monster parts, but as any experienced player in this game knows, trying to cook with these ingredients will only result in Rock Hard Food or Dubious Food. And given the huge piles of garbage around her campsite, she’s obviously been at this a long time.
*** Amazingly enough, when you find Moza again in ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom|Tears of the Kingdom]]'', she has succeeded! Find her in the cavern under the Rikoka Hills Well, where she can convert and of Link's failed attempts to cook into Monster Stew for 10 rupees.
** Also in ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom|Tears of the Kingdom]]'' Calyban - [[Single Woman Seeks Good Man| a young Gerudo looking for a spouse]] - is only slightly better than Moza was. After Link answers her [[Message in a Bottle]], she falls in love with him and tries to make Creamy Heart Soup, but despite this recipe's relative simplicity (Hydromelon, Voltfruit, Fresh Milk, and Hearty Radish), she usually ends up with Rock Hard Food. (Possibly a [[Double Entendre]] there, given [[Through His Stomach|the reason]] she's making it for Link.) Occassionally she does get it right, however - the chances of her succeeding seem to be random each time Link talks to her.
=== [[Visual Novels]] ===
* Presumably out of amusement, Riko in ''[[A Profile]]'' occasionally makes completely inedible lunches for Masayuki. She's a perfectly competent cook, she just does it for fun.
* The cooking of Ryou in ''[[Clannad (visual novel)|Clannad]]'' made a piglet keel over after one bite. Meanwhile, Sanae and bread makes for an... interesting mix, though her regular cooking is quite delicious. Is it even possible for bread to glow in such ominous colors? Just don't say it in front of her or she'll run off around the city crying.
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* Corti in ''[[Shinkyoku Soukai Polyphonica]]'' only once tried to make her [[Trademark Favourite Food|favourite dish - fried eggs sandwich]]. It was once more than wanted.
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* ''[[All Over the House]]'' regularly feature's the unfortunate results of Tesrin's attempts to cook, such as in [http://www.alloverthehouse.net/?p=53 this strip] and [http://www.alloverthehouse.net/?p=66 this strip]
* ''[[CRFH]]!!!'' Marsha is a [[Web Comic]] lethal chef, causing stomachs to be pumped and a single bite from one of her cakes sending someone to the hospital. Mike doesn't dare say anything, suspecting (correctly) that she'd dump him for it; her roommates openly complain and go to great lengths to keep her away from the kitchen, but she seems to think this is just spite. [[Fridge Logic|One has to wonder if she ever eats her own poisonous creations.]]
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** Earlier Igor purposefully invoked this trope with his [http://www.dorktower.com/2005/01/05/comics-archive-634/ Igor Bars]
* Anne in ''[[SSDD]]'' apparently has a [http://www.poisonedminds.com/d/20021129.html reputation] among her roommates for having horrendous cooking skills, her homemade wine is [http://www.poisonedminds.com/d/20011207.html particularly dangerous].
* Richard "Vinci" Nicolaides, half of the titular couple of the [[Furry Fandom|furry]] [[Web Comic]] ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20211117004809/http://www.vincifruit.com/ Vinci & Arty],'' at one point made cookies that got mistaken for fish, when the character had a [[Crossover]] with another [[Furry Fandom]] [[Web Comic]], [https://web.archive.org/web/20171002201258/http://www.doemain.com/ ''A Doemain of Our Own''] (ended).
* Early in ''[[Exploitation Now]]'', Bimbo made some clam chowder that was not only inedible but, when flushed down the toilet, summoned a [[Cosmic Horror]] that destroyed her apartment building.
* Two appear in ''[[8-Bit Theater|Eight Bit Theater]]''. There was the restaurant with biscuits made out of "solid goddamned lead," and then came Red Mage's shoe sandwiches:
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''How''... did you sample it? }}
* ''[[Devil Bear]]'' had a [http://www.thedevilbear.com/comics.php?p=502 cooking competition] in Teddy Bear Hell, with the prize of reincarnation. Half of these morons managed to kill or severely injure themselves. In the first challenge, all failed. In the second, one of the survivors (this far, anyway) managed to do well enough that Bearalzebub gave him "D-".
* Buckaress in ''[[League Of Super Redundant Heroes]]'', as shown in strip [http://superredundant.com/?comic=1120-fire-hazard 1120]:
{{quote|'''Alex''': She has already set the eggs on fire.
'''Cooking Instructor''': But... The stove isn't even on.}}
== [[Web Original]] ==
*
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]''
** Lunch Lady Doris routinely serves truly abominable food to the students at Springfield Elementary. It's hard to tell whether she's such an awful cook because of apathy, malice, lack of talent, budget cuts from the school forcing her to buy bad ingredients, or an evil combination of all of these.
*** Bart's impression of Lunch Lady Doris in the season three episode "Lisa's Pony": "Today's special is refried dog poop."
*** From season four's "I Love Lisa," Lunch Lady Doris serves beef hearts to the kids...[[Nausea Fuel|after the delivery guy reluctantly dumps them on the dirty floor]]. If you listen closely, one of them is ''[[Nightmare Fuel|still beating]]''.
*** From season sixth's "The PTA Disbands": "There's very little meat in these gym mats."
*** From "Treehouse of Horror V"'s story, "Nightmare Cafeteria" ({{spoiler|in which the school decides to solve its delinquent children problem and its school lunch issues by cooking the students}}): "Thanks to the latest round of budget cuts, we're down to using Grade F meat." (Ingredients: Mostly Circus Animals, Some Filler) Skinner claims "A battery counts as a vegetable."
*** From season seven's "Lisa the Vegetarian," it's revealed that Lunch Lady Doris doesn't cater to vegetarians (except for giving them a plain bun and deadpanning, "Yum. It's rich in bunly goodness.") and that the meatloaf she makes isn't made of meat.
** Homer is a prime example of [[Men Can't Keep House]] and he certainly can't cook:
*** "Homer the Smithers" used the Jon Arbuckle formula above when Homer was attempting to cook breakfast for Mr. Burns. Everything he tried to make caught on fire ('''''[[Epic Fail|including combining corn flakes and milk]]''''').
*** On the season four episode "Marge in Chains" (where Marge is put in jail for 30 days after accidentally shoplifting bourbon due to being stressed out from her family being sick), Marge flashbacked to the last time Homer tried to cook for the family. He served fish that weren't quite dead—and the lobsters attacked him.
** Marge herself is implied to be kind of an uninspired chef ("''Eight'' spices? Some of those have to be doubles! 'Ore-gahno'? What the hell?"), but as her family just shovels it down anyways, there are not complaints. There's also a mention of her making Bart [[Cordon Bleugh Chef|butterscotch chicken]] (which, oddly enough, [http://www.101cookingrecipes.com/chicken-cooking-recipes/butterscotch-chicken.php people have actually made]) on the season eight episode "A Milhouse Divided."
** Luann Van Houten is heavily implied to be a bad cook in "A Milhouse Divided
* ''[[Futurama]]'': Bender, being a robot, has no sense of taste and a limited knowledge of organic biology. As a result, he has trouble understanding why humans dislike food that ''only'' contains 90% of a lethal dose of table salt. He even ended up accidentally killing his [[The Obi-Wan|Obi-Wan Kenobi]]-esque culinary teacher with a dish that made his stomach implode, though his mentor at least declared it "acceptable" before dying. He also once made drinks that melted through the floor when spilled
{{quote|'''Leela:''' Oh, God! It's horrible.
'''Fry:''' It's the saltiest food I ever ate, and one time I ate a heaping bowl of salt!
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:* In the same episode, rats took a whiff of Bender's hat [[Even the Rats Won't Touch It|and turned tail]].
:* He did once manage make an acceptable birthday cake for Nibbler, perhaps because he actually followed the directions.
:* The episode "A Leela of Her Own" featured aliens called Cygnoids, whose bizarre physiology and foreign culture led to many problems, including "wine" made from crushed rats.
* Granma Stuffems from ''[[Codename: Kids Next Door]]'' is a very extreme example of this—the food is literally alive and assists her in her schemes. The giant sandwich creature Slamwitch is one meal that could probably make a meal out of you.
** Lizzie, #1's [[She Is Not My Girlfriend|girlfriend]], could also qualify. When "Nigie" is sick, she makes him soup that he later uses as an explosive weapon. When he goes on a retreat in Jamaica, she follows with a pie she baked for him. One bite of the pie knocks the pilot unconscious. And then the replacement pilot.
* ''[[Invader Zim]]'' often jokes about the lethality of cafeteria food at The Skool, including missing livers if the kids are lucky.
** GIR is a more straitlaced example.
* "Grammy" from Disney's ''[[Gummi Bears]]''.
* Miss Mush from ''[[Wayside]]''.
* Grandpa Max from ''[[Ben 10]]''. While his cooking may not strictly be lethal, it's generally... rather strange and somewhat unappetizing. This is a [[Running Gag]] for the series
* ''[[X-Men: Evolution]]'': Kitty Pryde is an example of this early on; her muffins either bounce off the walls or leave dents in the floor (poor Kurt). She gets a little better with constant practice as the series progresses.
* Jon Arbuckle in ''[[Garfield and Friends]]'' is frequently portrayed as a Lethal Chef; his "new recipes" invariably end up as something that looks like it belongs in a low-budget horror movie, although he is also usually capable of making normal food when he's not trying to get creative.
** On the other hand, sometimes he even fails at that. In one episode, Jon attempts to cook breakfast. With the [[Rule of Three]] fully in effect, the first two food items he makes, which require actual contact with flame, catch fire. Jon then gives up and decides to have some cereal. When he pours milk on his cereal, [[Epic Fail|it promptly catches fire]].
* Squidward in ''[[SpongeBob SquarePants]]'' seems to be something of a gourmet, albeit one with an affinity for canned bread and marzipan - in at least one episode, he is seen eating an elaborate and tasty dish prepared by himself. When asked to handle the Krusty Krab grill in Spongebob's stead during [[SpongeBob SquarePants/Recap/S1/E06 Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy - Pickles|"Pickles"]], however, all he manages to do is burn everything to a crisp, suggesting he's at least a lethal ''fry-chef''.
{{quote|'''Customer:''' (sips) [[Epic Fail|"He burnt my shake!"]]}}
:* In [[SpongeBob SquarePants/Recap/S3/E08 No Weenies Allowed - Squilliam Returns|"Squilliam Returns"]], Mr. Krabs claims to have served on the S.S Gourmet, and Squidward recruits him as their chef for a scheme to make the Krusty Krab a five-star restaurant. As it turns out, [[Exact Words|he did serve on the S.S. Gourmet... as a swabbie]] - he only ever cooked as head chef of the S.S Diarrhea. The "Appetizer" he cooks up not only looks the opposite of appetizing, but comes to life and attacks everyone!
:* In [[SpongeBob SquarePants/Recap/S5/E9 The Krusty Sponge - Sing a Song of Patrick|"The Krusty Sponge"]], Mr. Krabs exploits SpongeBob's image for his restaurant and takes it to the logical conclusion with "Spongy Patties", which are really mouldy, yellowed patties sold for a premium price—with disastrous side effects on the customers.
:
* ''[[Teen Titans (animation)|Teen Titans]]'':
** Both the girls are lethal chefs, but whereas Starfire might be a good cook [[Alien Lunch|by Tamaranean standards]], Raven is just plain terrible. It does not cheer her up at all when the alien on the team is the only one who enjoys her pancakes. The boys don't fare much better: Beast Boy is a strict vegetarian whose dishes are 90% tofu, while Cyborg is an avid carnivore. Their fridge has a [[It Came From the Fridge|strange, blue, living substance]] in it (that apparently tastes quite nice).
** An episode features the character of Mother Mae Eye, who appears after eating a cursed pie and whose whole goal seems to be attempting to bake the Titans into a pie to eat them. She summons evil gingerbread men to fight the Titans. They get rid of her by tricking her back into the pie and drop it off at the doorstep of the Hive Five.<!--Seems more of a case of "lethal and a chef"...-->
* Heffer Wolf on ''[[Rocko's Modern Life]]'' is a variation: while the meal he cooks for himself and Rocko in one episode tastes decent enough, it looks disgusting, is made from thoroughly unappetizing ingredients, and actually tries to crawl away from his plate at one point.
* In the one time that ''[[Chowder]]'' decided to make a dish ''without'' the assistance of master chef Mung Daal, he accidentally dumped a whole bottle of poison in it, and then unknowingly tried to sell it on the streets. It even managed to burp out the warning "You... will... ''die!''" when Mung was almost forced to taste-test it.
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* ''[[Arthur (animation)|Arthur]]'': Arthur's grandmother probably wouldn't be such a bad cook if she weren't distracted by the other things she tries to do at the same time. (Buster Baxter gobbles her cookies right down, though.)
** His father, that grandmother's son, learned to cook early on, perhaps because of this. Of course, he's a good chef, but when he experiments, "Just try to guess / what's on your plate".
* Timmy's mother from ''[[The Fairly OddParents]]
** The woman's cooking is so bad that it actually ''defied the laws of physics'' and collapsed into a pink mess. This happened during an episode where Timmy had wished for everything and everyone to be exactly the same - meaning ''color did not exist''. Timmy realizes that his wish didn't change people's personalities as a result, and uses the pink mess to get his fairies' attention.
** She also sets a bowl on fire while pouring milk in it.
** In the episode "Food Fight", it turns out her food just looks bad, but actually tastes good.
* ''[[Catscratch]]'' has Gordon (being Scottish and all), but Waffle managed to do worse in
* ''[[Johnny Bravo]]'' has Pops, the owner of a local diner who uses all sorts of strange things in his dishes, including possums and bald eagles. When Johnny runs in desperate for hair gel because Mr. Kevin's triple-strength hair tonic has been discontinued
* ''[[Ricky Sprocket: Showbiz Boy|Ricky Sprocket]]'' has Ricky's mom.
* A slight twist was done in ''[[The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin]]''. Everybody hated Grubby the Octopede's food, but that was because he always used tree root as a main ingredient: A favored taste for Octopedes but disliked by everybody else. His root stew in particular was also literally lethal at times, in that it made a great form of ammunition which quickly became a standard weapon for the heroes. Subverted once, however, in an episode where it turned out that root ''beer'' is the one recipe where roots are actually tasty to non-Octopedes.
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* ''[[G.I. Joe]]'':
** Heavy Duty takes this to another level; he likes to use ''grenades'' to barbecue. This is an intentional contrast to his cousin, world class chef and gourmet Roadblock.
** Gung Ho is little better. In one episode, Flint remarks that they once ended up using his homemade Cajun gumbo as
* Pleakley in ''[[Lilo & Stitch: The Series]]''. He's pleased by the fact that dog food makes its own gravy.
* That frog cook with the handlebar moustache from the old British [[Nickelodeon]] claymation shorts. He makes probably worse food then the Swedish Chef, though he seems to do all right with sea food.
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** In the "Who Can You Trust?" episode, two contestants have to prepare blowfish to feed to a teammate. While Bridgette makes a perfectly edible meal (even presented as sushi rolls), Lindsay made a glob which sent Trent to the infirmary. He survived [[Made of Iron|(don't ask us how).]]
** One of the competitions in ''[[Revenge Of The Island]]'' involved the contestants finding food in the radiated island and cooking it. All four dishes were repulsive in different ways, and only one was edible in the end. During the preparation portion of the contest, Zoey's salad actively tried to kill her.
* The Peculiar Purple Pieman from Porcupine Peak from the 1980s ''[[Strawberry Shortcake]]''. When on a cooking show, [[Animate Inanimate Object|his own oven]] groaned at the thought of baking his cookies, and one taste of his entry had the judge calling for a doctor, an ambulance, and the marines. Fortunately, [[Supreme Chef|Strawberry's]] cooking was the antidote. In another special he suggested using his pies as bait to catch a wild beast, [[Even the Rats Won't Touch It|but quickly reconsidered.]]
* ''[[Care Bears]]'':
** Mr. Beastly once tried to make cookies by following the instructions on Grams Bear's cooking show. Despite making an utter mockery of the recipe, the lone cookie he manages to make comes out of the oven perfectly fine. ''[[Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever|And fifty feet tall.]]'' The next time we see him, his monster cookie is chasing him across the landscape. Of course, we never learn if the cookie is actually ''edible'' or not, but it's probably safe to say that only [[Godzilla]] could answer that question.
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* [[Bugs Bunny]] tends to do this on purpose. "Turkey Surprise" consisted of a small powder keg and two sticks of dynamite, arranged and dressed up to look kinda like a turkey. The surprise? He lights the fuses.
* ''[[Kim Possible]]''. She can do anything...except cook. Cooking is one of the few skills where Ron excels over Kim.
** Also their school cafeteria. One episode starts with the principal telling Kim's class that their teacher is ''in the hospital'' after eating the cafeteria meatloaf, a common mistake made by first-year staff.
{{quote|'''Ron''': Behold, the cafeteria, where I am told you can get a hot nourishing meal. I haven't yet, but [[Your Mileage May Vary|your mileage may vary.]]}}
* ''[[Darkwing Duck]]'':
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* Peter Griffin from ''[[Family Guy]]'' is a ''literal'' version of this trope: In an episode where he starts his own restaurant, it was revealed that the last time he made food, he baked muffins that [[Your Head Asplode|blew up the heads]] of people who ate it, which was also implied to have shut down his business.
* The lunch lady at Stanley and Mary-Jane's school in ''[[Staines Down Drains]]''. She's called Typhoid Mary for a reason.
* ''[[My Little Pony:
** Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle; being kids, clearly aren't up to the task of cooking just yet. Apple Bloom's attempt at making cupcakes in "Call of the Cutie" produces oddly shaped, half-burned lumps that Pinkie Pie says "look much better than the last batch" and a big mess in the kitchen. In "Sisterhooves Social", Sweetie Belle tries to make Rarity breakfast in bed and manages to completely carbonize everything, including the ''juice'' and a bowl of what Rarity guesses to be applesauce. "Nope, [[Epic Fail|toast]]."
** Rarity and Sweetie Belle's mother probably qualifies as well considering she ''taught'' Sweetie Belle in the first place.
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** Double-subverted in one episode, where he makes something everyone loves at first. Problem is, Mongo himself doesn't even know what the [[Secret Ingredient]] is; he can't read and identifies the ingredients via labels. Turns out it's ''dog food'', not exactly something cats are keen on eating. Still, it's not a total loss; Leroy still loves it, seeing as he's an actual dog.
* Michelangelo in ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' (2012 version). In one episode, when he's complaining about no pizza shops being open, Donatello sarcastically suggests he make his own; Mikey actually ''does'', and his brothers are pretty revolted by what he comes up with, which includes worms from the garbage and a hot sauce called "Devil's Vomit". Naturally, nobody wants him to share it. "You take disgusting to a whole new level," says Raphael
* ''[[The Owl House]]''.
** Amity. In the episode "Escaping Expulsion", she offers Lutz "fairy potpie". Not only is this made with fairies, said fairies ''aren't dead yet''. Possibly justified in that Amity is a sheltered daughter of rich parents who likely doesn't have to cook for herself.
** Gus, Willow, and Hunter are little better; in "Thanks to Them" they help Amity prepare... something for Luz and her mother that looks even less appetizing. Seeing as Vee (a Boiling Isles native like them) has to nonverbally warns them not to eat it, it's doubtful the culture barrier is the reason. A later scene has Gus brag about how his mustard ravioli brought tears to their eyes - Vee again has to use [[Brutal Honesty]] here.
* In ''[[The Powerpuff Girls]]'', Professor Utonium is a decent chef ''except'' when he tries to make chili; a [[Flashback]] in the episode where he tries to do so shows that a previous attempt resulted in a Hazmat team being called in. in the actual episode, both he and all three of the Girls get the idea to use Chemical-X to make it, and while it ''tastes'' okay, eating it results a monster ''made of methane'' being created.<ref>For those who don't get the joke there, [[Getting Crap Past the Radar| the monster is created from the ''flatulence'' of everyone who eats it]], resulting in a monster that ''really'' smells bad.</ref>
* Crusty Baker in the ''[[A Pup Named Scooby-Doo]]'' episode, ''Horror of the Haunted Hairpiece'' is such a bad cook that despite owning a restaurant, he does not know that you have to boil pasta and served actual sticks as breadsticks. He was such a bad cook that [[Everyone Has Standards|Shaggy and Scooby of all people left his restaurant in disgust]]. {{Spoiler|[[Never My Fault|He blames his failing restaurant on the arcade]] and tried to ruin it by dressing up as [[Monster of the Week|Big Wig]]}}.
** Mr. O'Greazy fares somewhat better as he has a chain of fast food restaurants, but the flies surrounding him suggests he maintains poor sanitary conditions for his restaurants and every new announcement for a food item added to the menu is usually met with disgust with the exception of his Bucket O' Scooby Snacks for Scooby. The only known fan of his restaurant is the bully, Red Herring.
* Played for laughs in an episode of ''[[Superman: The Animated Series]]'', where John Irons (aka Steel) is starting to dread his wife's cooking (such as her pork chops with bean curd in cilantro sauce), though it's his fault for giving her a California cuisine cookbook.
* In ''[[Helluva Boss]]'' this is implied to be the case with [[Villainous Harlequin| Fizzarolli]]; in the episode "Oops", offering to make breakfast elicts a [[Ha Ha Ha No]] reply from Asmodeus.
* In the [[Netflix]] version of ''[[Carmen Sandiego]]'', the protagonist first met Zach and Ivy at a donut shop in Boston where the donuts were notoriously terrible. Zach is [[Obsessed with Food]], but can stop thinking of it easily by remembering that shop. The place actually made the donuts bad ''intentionally'', as the store was [[Legitimate Businessmen's Social Club| a front for V.I.L.E.]] and thus wanted to discourage customers.
== [[Real Life]] ==
* In the United States (and presumably other nations), school lunch ladies (particularly the public school ones) and military cooks have this reputation, particularly if the food that they cook comes out burned close to the point of in-edibility.
* Japanese mochi cakes can be a literal example, since they are extremely sticky, which can lead to suffocation. Every year, around New Years, there's always one or two news stories about seniors or young children suffocating on them.
* It's worth mentioning incorrectly prepared Fugu fish, which is ''literally'' lethal. Fugu (a blowfish) is considered a delicacy in Japan. However, it also has a survival counter-measure in the form of ''extremely'' powerful
** Extremely skilled fugu chefs intentionally leave a tiny bit of the neurotoxin in, so as to "sting" as you eat, which is similar to the burning sensation of eating extremely hot peppers.
** In perhaps a literal invocation of the trope, to become certified in Japan (or the United States, which has adopted the Japanese training regimen) to be able to prepare fugu, a chef has to undergo training for two to three years. Their final exam? Prepare a plate of fugu and eat it themselves. Obviously, there isn't a second chance if you fail the first.
* ''Deliberately'' Lethal Cookery has apparently become a pastime on several video sites, especially in Japan. Many chefs apparently have a code of ethics where they ''have'' to finish the food... Several examples follow.
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** A word of advice to anyone hoping to live off of MREs: One of them contains more than enough calories to meet the average American's dietary needs for an entire day. They are designed for the athletic fighting man on the move. Also, Tabasco sauce covers a multitude of sins, and is typically included in the ration pack.
* [[Typhoid Mary]]. She wasn't a bad cook, but she did have a disease that spread through her cooking and killed anyone who ate it.
** That's because she was a notorious slob. She would test her soup... by licking the ladle and stirring it again. She'd 'clean' knives and other utensils by just breathing on them or spitting on them. I could go on, [[Nausea Fuel|but you'd probably throw up]].
** It didn't help that Typhoid spreads through fecal matter.
* [[Blazing Inferno Hellfire Sauce|Capsaicin]], in sufficient quantities, can be lethal for ingestion in mammals. It takes significantly less than the amount sold in stores to cause significant damage, unless you're seriously tolerant/have built up your tolerance.
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** One reader said that in his teens, with his mother away from home, he'd attempted to follow the cookbook recipe for oatmeal cookies—but not realizing that oatmeal cookies are made with ''raw'' oatmeal, he added two cups of ''cooked'' oatmeal. (ISTR the description, "Even the chickens wouldn't eat them.")
** Another recounted a culinary experiment by one of his college roommates, which involved taking a large saucepan and emptying cans into it: canned chicken, canned tomatoes, canned beans, all manner of canned vegetables. When it had achieved a nice thick-soup consistency, with perhaps an inch of liquid at the top and another inch of space in the pot, the chef then stirred in a one-pound box of macaroni ... and walked away. Returning fifteen minutes later, he found a vertical ''column'' of solidified soup, with the pot lid balanced atop it, emerging from the pot.
* Anyone with the German surname "Shreckengost"/"Schreckengost" ("Food of Horror") is probably descended from a Lethal Chef.
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[[Category:Food Tropes]]
[[Category:Tomboy]]
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